CALEB CUSHING'S ADDRESS. 367 



surface of the earth is a confused mass of mountains. Of 

 course, navigable rivers, canals, and railways, either to connect 

 together the interior parts of the country, or to connect them 

 with the sea, are impossible. Of course, also, the relative pro- 

 portion of arable land is much less than it is in this coimtry. 

 Moreover, as the climate is dry, and the running streams few 

 and small, therefore, of the land in general, only those portions 

 can be cultivated profitably, which are susceptible of irrigation. 

 If God had cast the lot of our fathers in that part of America, 

 not ours would be the mighty ships, which now bear our flag, 

 and the fame of our greatness, and the rich productions of our 

 soil, our fisheries, our work-shops, and our looms, to the utter- 

 most bounds of the earth ; — not ours, the floating palaces of the 

 Hudson, the Delaware, the Ohio, and the Mississippi ; — not 

 ours the wonders of mechanic art in the use of the steam en- 

 gine ; not ours, the iron bands of so many railroads, which 

 seem as if intended to bind together indissolubly the east and 

 the west, the north and the south ; not ours the great forests 

 and vast prairies of the west, which invite and satisfy the ex- 

 pansive energies of our race, which draw off the superfluity of 

 our population, which constitute the safety valve for all the 

 pent up passions and explosive or subversive tendencies of an 

 advanced society, and which, in the asylum and aliment they 

 afli"ord to the discontented or unhappy of other lands, are serv- 

 ing to hurry us on to the very pinnacle of earthly power. 



As, therefore, we are great, wealthy, prosperous, and power- 

 ful, so are we, despite of transitory conflicts of interest, peace- 

 ful and secure in our political relations, because of land, more 

 land, exuberance of land. The Anglo-Saxon must have room 

 in space, and his own way in opinion. The colonists of Mass- 

 chusetts Bay had spread themselves over half the surface of the 

 State, at a time, when their aggregate number did not exceed 

 the present population of one of our smaller cities ; and how 

 little of dissent, either religious or political, they tolerated, we 

 know well here in Salem. The people of the English colonies 

 felt crowded on the eastern slope of the Alleghanies, and, 

 though most of the land was yet untrodden wilderness, they 

 could not find space among them in which to suff'er the resi- 



